Abstract Trecento Seascape

Trecento Seascape: Navigating the Tractive Sphere

Robert Brennan (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London)

Öffentlicher Eröffnungsvortrag zum Workshop »Zugkräfte«. Potenziale der Kunst im Trecento (6.–8. Mai 2026)
Organisation: Wolf-Dietrich Löhr, Gerd Micheluzzi

The sphericity of the earth was well-known in medieval science, but its implications for the experience and visualization of the world in this period have only recently begun to draw scholarly attention. Focusing on late medieval Italian seascapes, in which the rotundity of the earth is apparent, this paper addresses the relationship between the harnessing of natural forces in the arts of navigation and the representation of such forces in the art of painting.

Robert Brennan is Lecturer in Italian Art, c. 1300–1500, at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. He previously taught at the University of Queensland, and held fellowships at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut) and the Power Institute at the University of Sydney. His first book, Painting as a Modern Art in Early Renaissance Italy, was published by Harvey Miller in 2019.